Tuesday, and the Liberal Democrats are going on health, and a £350m promise to cut waiting times for around 500,000 people, in what they are calling the "hidden waiting lists" within the NHS. Journalists are given a 10-page dossier, seemingly compiled from a variety of sources, including the Audit Commission, piecing together waiting times for scans and tests – something the party says is not compiled officially by the Department of Health.
Charles Kennedy – who is looking a lot less tired than last week - and party health spokesman Paul Burstow take to the stage, accompanied by Lord Razzall, who says the party is "buoyed up" by today's range of opinion polls. Mr Kennedy takes to the podium to declare: "Our commitment is to the forgotten people in the NHS system – those languishing on the hidden waiting lists that the Labour government doesn't even bother to measure." They promise to publish the entire waiting time, including to diagnosis, rather than just to treatment, which the Lib Dems say would also better utilise NHS scanner capacity.
7.45am: The BBC wants to know where the £350m is coming from – reallocation of existing government spending, appears to be the answer. So how many jobs would go? No headcount figure, says Mr Burstow.
The topic switches to immigration, and Mr Kennedy calls the use of the term "controlled immigration" "a complete misrepresentation of the issue", since all governments have a policy of controlled immigration – a direct rebuke to Mr Howard, who has suffered some negative headlines today over his party's focus on the issue. Asked if the Lib Dems can win, Mr Kennedy says: "With three parties competing in a system designed for two, anything can happen."
8am: Channel Four quibbles with the Lib Dem figure that 17 million people require long-term health care in the UK – but it turns out this includes asthma and diabetes. Sir Menzies Campbell, the deputy leader, is watching cagily from the back of the press pack. Mr Kennedy criticises the parties' "Dutch auction" on immigration, and says his party has not had any "averse" reaction on the doorsteps to its more liberal approach. The Mail on Sunday's terrier, Peter Hitchens, gets his first question of the 2005 election campaign – are the Lib Dems ready for government if there's a hung parliament? Mr Kennedy repeats his mantra that if there was a swing against Labour large enough to wipe out their majority, "we won't be propping up a government that has been given its P45 by the public".
That wraps it up – Mr Kennedy is off to Oakhampton and Guildford.
